Race & Rally Day 1

Windy!

The Task For The Day

It was windy early this morning. As we headed to the flight park, there was talk and speculation that the day would be canceled due to the high winds, and low cloudbase. At the flightpark however, the office and setup areas were in the wind shadow of some tall trees. This gave the illusion of lighter winds and I think helped convince the task committee to go ahead and call a task. The tug pilots were reporting 30mph and turbulence at cloudbase, but conditions were forecast to lighten up slightly as the day went on.

A task was called directly downwind, 67Km to the North West, along highway 78 up the side of Lake Okeechobee. Despite setting up my glider the night before I somehow managed to be inefficient enough to end up at the back of the launch line. Oh well, I’ve been at the back of the launch line many times. At least I was in my element.

Back of the line

The launch window opened at 12pm, and there were 5 start gates starting at 1:00pm, 1:10pm, 1:20pm, etc. By the time I got my tow, it was 1:10pm already. The start cylinder was a 10km radius, so I had some distance to cover to get started.

It was turbulent on launch. I had watched several gliders ahead of me get knocked around coming off the tow cart, so I was getting pretty nervous. I thought some about the modifications I had made to my leading edge the day before and quickly decided to think about something else. My tug came and quickly I was off and up. It was turbulent on tow, and it wasn’t until I was 800’ up that I was able to take a deep breath and relax.

The tug dropped me a couple kilometers from the park, pretty much cross wind to it. Several of us struggled in sink and I quickly realized that being so far cross wind to the park was going to make it difficult to get back and re-launch. While making a bee-line for the park I hit some strong lift and started climbing. The wind was strong and I was drifting quickly along the course line. Within minutes returning to the flight park was no longer an option.

I continued to climb and drift, always keeping my eye on a few gliders about 1km ahead of me. There were climbing also, though slightly slower then me. I started to regret not getting a chance to fly yesterday. I was flying over completely unfamiliar topography, and I was struggling to figure out exactly which way the course went. Normally my flight instruments will give me this information, but circling in such strong winds makes it difficult to get an accurate reading. So I followed these other gliders, until the split and went different directions.

Here I made my first mistake. I hesitated for a minute or two before deciding which line to take. This cost me a couple hundred feet that I would later be trying desperately to get back. Since the top of lift was typically under 3,000’, there wasn’t much altitude to spare. I took a center line, trying not to drift downwind of the course line. I entered a thermal about 300’ below 3 other gliders. I climbed slowly, then maintained, then sank. I didn’t want to head out on glide first, by myself, being low like I was. So I waited for the guys above me to go. This was my second mistake.

I waited too long, and the other pilots didn’t make a move. After wasting several hundred feet, I went out on my own. I saw a flock of birds climbing downwind of the course line, on the other side of 78. My last mistake was not going to them. The trick on such a low day was to just stay in the air and let the wind carry you down the course. I opted to stay more directly on the course line and headed North to sink.

I saw a few gliders on the ground ahead of me. I knew I could glide well past them, but they were in remote areas that looked wet and difficult to retrieve. I opted instead to land short of them in a dry field next to the road. I landed only about 20km from the start. Not as far as I wanted, but it was a good, instructive day. The air and the thermals are different out here. I am used to dry air, with hard thermals and defined cores. Here things seem to be softer, wider, and less defined. There’s a trick to climbing in this kind of lift effectively, but I haven’t figured it out yet.

My Landing Spot

We drove from Okeechobee to Quest air through torrential downpours and lightning. There is a massive front passing through the East coast. We are hoping to be on the far side of it tomorrow, but we’ll have to wait and see. It’s pouring still as I type this.

Flight time: 0:45
Distance: ~20km